1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to dendritic materials for use in energy storage devices. More specifically, the present invention relates to unimolecular micelles acts as a multi-component assembly wherein the independent micelles act in concert to form an enhanced energy storage device.
2. Description of Related Art
Neat and orderly arrays for micellar systems have been reported, and are structurally based on the original work of vxc3x6gtle et al., who delineated xe2x80x9ccascadexe2x80x9d construction. The U.S. Pat. No. 4,435,548, issued Mar. 6, 1984; U.S. Pat. No. 4,507,466, issued Mar. 26, 1985; U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,120, issued Dec. 10, 1985; U.S. Pat. No. 4,568,737, issued Feb. 4, 1986; U.S. Pat No. 4,587,329, issued May 6, 1986; U.S. Pat. No. 4,631,337, issued Dec. 23, 1986; U.S. Pat. No. 4,694,064, issued Sep. 15, 1987; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,737,550, issued Apr. 12, 1988, all to Tomalia et al., relate to branched polyamidoamines. The polyamidoamines include a plurality of pendent aminoamide moieties exhibiting properties which are related to linear polyamidoamines from which the branched polymers are derived. These compounds can be characterized as high molecular weight, highly-branched, multi-functional molecules possessing a three-dimensional morphology. Synthetic strategies employed for the realization of such xe2x80x9ccascade polymersxe2x80x9d require consideration of diverse factors including the content of the initial core, building blocks, space for molecules, branching numbers, dense packing limits, and desired porosity, as well as other factors. The selection of the building blocks govern the type of branching desired from the core molecule, as well as the technology used to attach each successive layer or xe2x80x9ctierxe2x80x9d of the cascade polymer.
Applicants have developed methods of making cascade polymers, especially those providing a unimolecular micelle consisting essentially of alkyl carbon possessing diverse terminal functionality. Such compounds and methods are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,853 (1992); U.S. Pat. No. 5,136,069 (1992); U.S. Pat. No. 5,773,551 (1998), all to applicants.
Further developments of the above-described chemistry by applicants have demonstrated that the unimolecular micellar character permits the initial evaluation of the orderliness and chemistry within a series of specifically designed, spherical macromolecules due to covalently bound assemblies of internal reactive sites. Similar dendritic species have been constructed with amide, ethereal, phosphonium, silicone, germane, and aryl, inner linkages and functionalities.
Iterative synthetic methodology has afforded new pathways to the construction of complex, high molecular weight molecules. A notable and tangible consequence of iterative chemistry can be seen in the rapid emergence, and intense scrutiny, of branched macromolecules known as dendrimers. (Newkome, et al. 1996). The realization of xe2x80x9cdendrimers,xe2x80x9d and related constructs such as xe2x80x9chyperbranchedxe2x80x9d (Turner, 1995) and xe2x80x9cdendrigraftxe2x80x9d (Tomalia, et al., 1997; Grubbs, et al., 1997) polymers, has facilitated advances in the potential to design and build architecturally homogeneous branched molecular assemblies. However, there are inherent limitations imposed on these structures due primarily to 1) the repetitive application of a single building block for tier construction leading to functional group uniformity on the surface as well as the interior of the branched structure; and 2) a lack of interchangeable monomers that would facilitate the incorporation of diverse application oriented functionality and thus allow the creation of utilitarian assemblies.
It would therefore be useful to have structures which utilize multiple building blocks and were able to also utilize interchangeable monomers thus allowing the creation of utilitarian assemblies.
The present invention addresses these limitations via 1) the development of a xe2x80x9cmodularxe2x80x9d set of application-oriented, branched building blocks for dendritic synthesis (Young, et al., 1994) aimed directly at enhanced solid-state energy storage and release devices, e.g., lithium battery performance; and 2) the use of combinatorial-based tier construction techniques (Newkome, et al., 1998) for the creation of unimolecular, multi-component assemblies whereby the individual components can act in concert to produce a desired physiochemical effect.
According to the present invention, there is provided dendritic materials for enhanced performance of an energy storage device having a unimolecular micelle including branched building blocks. Also provided is an energy storage device having a lithium source, a hydrocarbon dendrimer based electrolyte made up of a unimolecular micelle including branched building blocks, insertional electrode and a current conductor.